History camp returns to Brush Museum, June 9-11

Deadline to register is May 31

Steve Rohde helps campers begin putting together a log cabin, one of many activities held during last year s History Camp. (Katie Collins/News-Tribune)

For a sixth straight year, volunteers, staff and board members involved with the Brush Area Museum and Cultural Center will put on a blast to the past for area kids as they gear up for the 2016 Summer History Camp, slated to welcome campers beginning Thursday, June 9 and running through Saturday, June 11. Area kids ages 6-13 can enjoy the chance to uncover and relive the past during the camp, which will engage children through activities like building a frontier settlement and usher in a better understanding of history through stories, games, crafts, music and much more, including a visit from guest speakers such as Lakota Sioux Indian Martin Knife Chief, who was a wonderful addition to last year’s camp. The camp will host the hands-on history hullabaloo on the grounds of the Brush Area Museum, located at 314 S. Clayton Street and housed in the former Knearl School, which was built in 1912 and restored in 1994 with help from a large donation from the estate of Ada Cooper before being designated a historical landmark, and the site of the Brush Museum. There, campers can also enjoy both a Plains Indian village and Mountain Man encampment reconstruction. Last year’s affair had veteran campers construct their own cabin, the beginnings of a newly named town of ‘Olden Future’, which will likely be on-hand again to help peer into the plains past, and experience the upbringing of an olden village by electing a town marshal and mayor.

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John Schaffner of Wray, Colorado, and his authentic chuck wagon, was also a timely arrival to last year’s town. Also enticed on the scene were several high school students who acted as chaperones and assistants. “They were pretty vital,” explained Museum History Camp founding member and organizer Bruce Fyfe, who is one of a trio of the team who has made the camp possible for the past six years, along with Museum Board members OJ Metzgar and Steve Rohde. “It’s about getting kids involved in history,” said Rohde regarding reasons trio put such effort into the camp each year. “It’s a hands-on deal, but also supplies emphasis on other areas, including on leadership. It’s about getting kids interested in the subject, getting them to realize it’s not boring and showing them that people actually went through these things to survive in the past. Not to flourish,” he reiterated. “Just survive.”This year, campers can choose a particular study group from choices such as Frontier settlement, the Plains Indian Village or Mountain Man Encampment to focus their study time on. The 2016 camp also encourages parents and guardians to attend the final Saturday morning camp to enjoy the Colonel William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody program including tales from an impressionist as well as enjoy lunch. Space is limited to 40 campers and the deadline date to register is Tuesday, May 31.Campers ages 6-13 are eligible and camp runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, with a schedule of 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.The camp fee is just $10 per student, or $5 for students who have family with Brush Area Museum memberships. To register, call the City of Brush! Recreation department at (970)842-5280, visit the Museum at 314 S. Clayton Street or log on to www.brushcolo.com and click on Departments/Parks and Recreation and then Online Rec Registration to register and pay online.

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